Whether you're good or bad for us (and each study arrives at a different conclusion) nearly half of U.S. workers said they need you to get through the workday.

Some more than others. A Dunkin' Donuts survey of 4,700 java consumers ranked which professions need that pick-me-up the most.

Top of the list? Scientists and lab technicians. Next, marketing and public relations workers.

"For the longest time I was the only coffee drinker in the office," marveled Alex Cook, a senior account executive at Lilja Inc. in Eden Prairie. Cook added that in his line of work, a liquid jolt can be useful if not essential. "There definitely are times when we're working on a number of different projects and need to be able to transition quickly," he said.

The survey also found that if one is good, two is better: About 61 percent of coffee drinkers have at least two cups.

And what do hotel workers, attorneys and judges have in common? They take theirs black. Must be the robes.

But veteran nurse Diana Peppard was surprised to find that nurses ranked 13th on the list, behind the likes of professors, social workers and human-resources coordinators. She said the majority of her peers at Hennepin County Medical Center opt for coffee.

"We have three coffee shops and also the cafeteria serves a lot of coffee," Peppard said. "Hospital-wide, we're huge users of caffeine.

"I have a hunch that [13th] might be unrealistically low," Peppard said. At HCMC, she added with a laugh, "there's only a couple of nurses whose bodies are temples who don't do caffeine."

"Women of the flats stood guard over their thresholds while police attempted to eject them for failure to pay rent on the grounds on which the dwellings stand. A near-riot was halted when a second court order was served on police, ordering a stay of the ejections."